A recent study by the University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Bender Institute of Neuroimaging has shown that deep meditation produces detectable changes in the hippocampus, the area of the brain that deals with memory, emotions, spacial orientation, and navigation.

The participants meditated for 27 minutes a day, for eight weeks, and their brains were scanned before and after this period using an MRI scanner, which showed a greater density of grey-matter in the hippocampus.

Meditation practices have been used for many years in different cultures, as an aid to relaxation, a way of calming the mind, and for mental and spiritual development. Modern studies such as this one show us that meditation has real and measurable physiological changes in the brain, which back up the claims made by meditation devotees.

In Chinese culture, both stationary and moving meditation form an important part of traditional health and self-cultivation practices – In both T’ai Chi and Qi Gong, this meditative aspect is very important. Students of these arts learn to calm the mind and relax the body. As well as being a very effective antidote to stress, this has numerous other wide reaching and long-term health benefits.